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Post by cardinalblacktrojan on Jul 1, 2019 11:50:05 GMT -6
Looks like WKU has announced the hiring of Phil Cunningham as associate head coach of WKU, and Marcus Grant as an assistant coach. Of course he was hired by Rick Stansbury, who Cunningham was with at Mississippi State. Sounds like some good ol' boy networking.
I like how in the article, Stansbury says that Cunningham "did a remarkable job as head coach at Troy getting them to the NCAA Tournament, which isn’t an easy task there."
Seriously? Maestri was able to go the Division II NCAA Tourney all the time. Our men's program is tied with the third-most conference titles during the past decade, only behind Georgia State and Little Rock. Our women's program has been arguably the best program in the Sun Belt over the past few years with two NCAA bids and an NIT bid. We have one of the best arena's in the Sun Belt, as well as the entire southeastern U.S.
Stansbury is an idiot. Cunningham took the job claiming he could take Troy back into a winning program, and he failed. He had a brand new, incredible arena to work with. It's his own fault that getting Troy back to the NCAA Tournament wasn't an "easy task." I mean, Cunningham literally had the top two all-time scoring leaders in Troy history for 4 years (Varnado and Person), and what did he do with that talent??? Had one winning season.... and that was it.
Cunningham was a waste of a coach who didn't accept accountability for his lack of winning. His Twitter post following his firing, and now this quote by his new boss, proves that fact.
Glad he's gone.
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Post by jonesoxygen on Jul 1, 2019 12:13:21 GMT -6
Wow, that's a little strong. Did things work out here for Cunningham, of course not, that's why he is gone. To drag him through the mud now is a little much though. What do you expect Stansbury to say, "Cunningham had the top two leading scorers in Troy history and only had one winning season and was a waste of a coach who didn't accept accountability for his lack of winning."? Is this the first time in D-1 sports that "good ol boy" networking hired coaches? See Troy football in the 90's and current day. Nothing wrong with it.
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Post by Hemi Man on Jul 1, 2019 12:40:12 GMT -6
Wow, that's a little strong. Did things work out here for Cunningham, of course not, that's why he is gone. To drag him through the mud now is a little much though. What do you expect Stansbury to say, "Cunningham had the top two leading scorers in Troy history and only had one winning season and was a waste of a coach who didn't accept accountability for his lack of winning."? Is this the first time in D-1 sports that "good ol boy" networking hired coaches? See Troy football in the 90's and current day. Nothing wrong with it. I wouldn’t read too much into the original post. Typical sewage overflow that comes from most keyboard experts. Networking is a major part of Athletics all levels.
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Post by cardinalblacktrojan on Jul 1, 2019 12:50:34 GMT -6
Wow, that's a little strong. Did things work out here for Cunningham, of course not, that's why he is gone. To drag him through the mud now is a little much though. What do you expect Stansbury to say, "Cunningham had the top two leading scorers in Troy history and only had one winning season and was a waste of a coach who didn't accept accountability for his lack of winning."? Is this the first time in D-1 sports that "good ol boy" networking hired coaches? See Troy football in the 90's and current day. Nothing wrong with it.
I'd expect Stansbury to have more tact than to foolishly say it's a difficult to task to make it the Big Dance at Troy... as if to make it seem like it was Troy's fault that Cunningham couldn't win here. This isn't Gardner-Webb or Alabama A&M where we have crap facilities, no history, and can't recruit good players. Troy has had a lot of tradition and winning in the program's history. It's not a difficult task to take Troy to the NCAA Tournament.
I'd be willing to bet Scott Cross didn't take this job thinking... "man, this is going to be a difficult task to take Troy to the NCAA's..." All I keep hearing from him, even on his Twitter, is his excitement to be here and win, and his belief that Troy men's basketball is a "sleeping giant". Big difference of perspectives between two head coaches.
May be strong, but it is what it is.
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Post by cardinalblacktrojan on Jul 1, 2019 12:51:04 GMT -6
Wow, that's a little strong. Did things work out here for Cunningham, of course not, that's why he is gone. To drag him through the mud now is a little much though. What do you expect Stansbury to say, "Cunningham had the top two leading scorers in Troy history and only had one winning season and was a waste of a coach who didn't accept accountability for his lack of winning."? Is this the first time in D-1 sports that "good ol boy" networking hired coaches? See Troy football in the 90's and current day. Nothing wrong with it. I wouldn’t read too much into the original post. Typical sewage overflow that comes from most keyboard experts. Networking is a major part of Athletics all levels. Cunningham has always leaned on Stansbury.
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Post by jonesoxygen on Jul 1, 2019 13:08:26 GMT -6
I wouldn’t read too much into the original post. Typical sewage overflow that comes from most keyboard experts. Networking is a major part of Athletics all levels. Cunningham has always leaned on Stansbury. At least we agree on Coach Cross.
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Post by gator8 on Jul 2, 2019 6:22:03 GMT -6
You can’t look at Division II success and necessarily equate it with Division I capabilities. We all praise Maestri for all he had done for the program, but the final record is he only guided Troy to the DI Big Dance once (1997 technicality aside).
I’ll agree Cunningham never seemed to have that key breakthrough (other than the one tournament trip), but his era wasn’t a total waste. He had to rebuild Troy’s roster from scratch essentially. He did so with some of the best talent Troy’s ever seen. The lack of consistent winning is why Cunningham is gone now, and there’s no need to continuously dog the guy who didn’t quite have the success we’d all had hoped for in a first-time head coach.
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Post by Possum on Jul 2, 2019 14:05:14 GMT -6
2 words... Bye Felicia.
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Post by cardinalblacktrojan on Jul 3, 2019 9:15:44 GMT -6
Cunningham has always leaned on Stansbury. At least we agree on Coach Cross.
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Post by cornhole on Jul 4, 2019 16:42:12 GMT -6
Cornhole wish them well!
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